On-board Weighing Systems Designed to Scale Mining Payload Processes
In the mining industry, more than half of the entire production costs go towards transportation and payload management. In order to keep these expenditures to a minimum, a mining company must be able to accurately evaluate transportation weights and duration.
Furthermore, although weighing a truck’s payload is necessary in order to determine its profitability, having to make various trips to an external scale and then having to dump the payload out, weigh it, and then have to load it back onto the truck again can definitely eat into the profit margins. Much of these additional costs can be eliminated by having the trucks outfitted with their own on-board weighing systems.
Having on-board weighing systems installed on mining trucks is still the most effective and cost-effective way to monitor a truck’s payload. There are many versatile and adaptable on-board weighing systems that are available on the market, and it is easy to adapt them to different trucks.
Beyond just mining trucks, these advanced weighing solutions can be integrated on various other forms of equipment, such as on-board weighing systems for loaders, conveyor belt systems, and telehandlers. Additionally, most on-board systems come with digital monitoring systems that make managing the payload from inside the truck’s cab easy.
On-board Weighing Solutions for Mining
There are different on-board weighing systems available for the different load bearing vehicles that are used in the mining industry. Here is a rundown of some of the most common on-board weighing systems for trucks and other mining equipment.
Articulated Truck Scales
Articulated truck scales for dump trucks that are both rigid as well as those with center pivot steering make it easy to weigh while the truck is in motion, when it is loading, and when it is discharging its load.
Haul Truck Scales
Haul truck scales also allow for in-motion weighing. A robust digital communications system allows the driver to monitor the payload from the cab, and special sensors alert the driver when there is a danger of overloading the truck.
Underground Truck Scales
Underground truck scales are available for those mining operations that have a below ground component and need to be able to effectively weigh the payload underground as their specialized subterranean vehicles are being loaded.
Mobile Crusher Scales
Mobile crushers are essential to mining operations for a variety of reasons – they break up refuse so that it can be more easily disposed of and they break up large segments of composite materials in such a way that the different constituent parts can then be determined and analyzed. It is often crucial to be able to weigh the materials handled by mobile crushers and there are many on-board weighing systems that are specifically designed to be installed on these vehicles.
Investing in On-board Truck Scales
Selecting the right on-board truck scale can definitely reduce the costs of production and increase the profits of a mining operation. It is important to select the right scale for each vehicle in order to ensure that all of the readings are accurate. (To ensure accuracy, it is often the case that measurements be compared with the weights from other external scales in order to determine that the readings of the on-board weighing systems are indeed correct).
As mining by its very nature entails a great deal of wear and tear, it is also important that all on-board weighing systems and load management solutions should be easy to install and easy to service in the field. At the end of each work day, your scales should tell you exactly how much weight was transported, where it was transported to, how many trips were made, and how long each trip took.